A shrimp cocktail was off limits for the Israelites. But a chocolate-covered grasshopper? Yes!
The list of kosher food that God allowed for His people continues in Leviticus 11. Animals must have cloven hooves and chew the cud. Fish must have fins and scales. Birds must not be carrion-eaters, rodent-eaters, or fish-eaters. Then God even—do you have a strong stomach?—includes edible insects! He says, “All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you” (v 20) unless they have “jointed legs” (v 21) like locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers! Yum! These were in John the Baptizer’s diet (Mt 3:4), as they are in many countries. The renowned Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem serves them up deep-fried and rolled in a mixture of flour, coriander seeds, garlic, and chili powder. Then again, maybe I’ll choose the burger! Whatever the case, God gave His people a wide menu of options, but made it clear that eating (or even touching) those on the forbidden list would disqualify one from pleasing the Lord. He also rejected rodents and lizards (vv 29-31). Christians today don’t have the same restrictions, but we know there are many influences in the world that will also make us unclean spiritually and should be avoided like the plague! One verse that links the physical and spiritual shows the view of early Christians as to which of the Jewish kosher rules still applied: “Abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well” (Acts 15:29). But the Lord also used these animal distinctions to teach Peter that a new day had dawned (see Acts 10:9f). Gentiles, once ceremonially unclean, were now to be recognized by Jewish believers as loved by God, and thus sought for and offered salvation by God’s grace alone!